MUST HAVE MICROSOFT APPS ON YOUR ANDROID SMARTPHONE

Surprise! Microsoft is among the most prolific developers of apps for the Android platform. And Redmond has turned on the afterburners in the past year, releasing a string of quality business-focused apps. Here are my 10 picks for the best of the bunch.

SO HERE ARE MUST HAVE MICROSOFT APPS ON YOUR ANDROID SMARTPHONE

Microsoft Word

Named one of the “Best Apps of 2015” by Google PlayThe real Microsoft Word app for Android phones and tablets. Microsoft Word for Android is made for work on-the-go. Word has the familiar look, feel and quality of Office with an intuitive touch experience designed for Android phones and tablets. Whether you want to create a beautiful document or just need to read and make quick edits on-the-go, Word gives you the best productivity experience you want. Work with confidence knowing that we save your changes automatically and you won’t lose any formatting or data as you move across devices. You’ll have easy access to your documents in the cloud whenever you need them. The free Microsoft Word app provides a core experience for viewing, creating and editing docs on devices with a screen size of 10.1 inches or smaller. You can unlock the full Word experience with an Office 365 subscription.By installing the app, you agree to these terms and conditions: http://aka.ms/eula.

REAL MICROSOFT WORDGet the best productivity app on your Android phones and tablets with Microsoft Word. It combines the familiar look, feel and quality of Office with a touch-friendly experience designed for Android.• Office offers unequaled file compatibility and layout fidelity. Documents will look exactly how you intended on your Android phone and tablet.• The familiar navigation and menu options in the ribbon help you get started quickly.• The familiar features you know in Word - Images, charts, footnotes, formulas, tables are all in the touch-first apps to give you the best productivity experience on your phone and tablet.• The Word app is designed for one-handed use on your phone, with controls at the bottom of the screen. No keyboard or mouse required.• Save time by using one of the handy templates for your task list, research paper or family update.

DO YOUR BEST WORK – ANYWHERE, ANYTIMEBe productive anywhere with touch-first Word app. Create, read and make edits on-the-go with easy access to your documents in the cloud.• Create beautiful documents with Word. It’s easy to insert textboxes, charts and images with the touch of your fingers.• New documents are automatically saved in a location of your choice as soon as you start typing• Get a rich reading experience with Word. Reflow view adapts your document to fit perfectly on your Android Phone so you can read e-book style with simple swipes.• Access your recent files from any device so you can quickly pick up from where you left off.• Your documents are a click away. Access your files whenever you need to, with OneDrive, One Drive for Business, SharePoint, Google Drive, Box, Dropbox support.'

WORK TOGETHERCollaborate on documents and share your ideas right from your Android phone and tablet.• Easily share your documents with the cloud-connected Word app simply by sending a link or attachment• Work with others at the same time. You can view and restore a previous version of your document, so you never have to worry about losing your work• Track changes, comments and mark-up docs so everybody knows the thinking behind the edits

Requirements:• OS version: KitKat (4.4.X) or above• 1 GB RAM or aboveSign in with a free Microsoft account to create or edit docs. A qualifying Office 365 subscription is required to unlock the full Office experience. Office 365 is also required to create or edit on tablets with a screen larger than 10.1 inches. See office.com/information for a list of qualifying plans.If you don’t have a subscription, you can buy Office 365 Home or Office 365 Personal within the app in most countries and regions. With an Office 365 subscription, you get the full Word, Excel and PowerPoint experience on Android tablet, phone, iPad and iPhone, and you can install full Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote on PCs or Macs.

Microsoft Excel

The real Microsoft Excel app for Android phones and tablets. Microsoft Excel for Android is made for work on-the-go. Sort and analyze your data with Excel and draw insights. Excel has the familiar look, feel and quality of Office with an intuitive touch experience designed for Android phones and tablets. Whether you want to create a powerful spreadsheet or just need to view and make quick edits on the go, Excel gives you the best productivity experience you want. Work with confidence knowing that we save your changes automatically and you won’t lose any formatting or data as you move across devices. You’ll have easy access your spreadsheets in the cloud whenever you need them.The free Excel app provides a core experience for viewing, creating and editing documents on devices with a screen size of 10.1 inches or smaller. You can unlock the full Excel experience with an Office 365 subscription.By installing the app, you agree to these terms and conditions: http://aka.ms/eula

REAL MICROSOFT EXCELGet the best spreadsheet app on your Android phones and tablets with Microsoft Excel. It combines the familiar look, feel and quality of Office with a touch-first experience designed for Android.• Office offers unequaled file compatibility and layout fidelity. Spreadsheets will look exactly how you intended on your Android phone and tablet. No loss of data• The familiar navigation and menu options in the ribbon help you get started quickly• The familiar features you know in Excel - formulas, tables, charts, Sparklines are included in the Excel app

DO YOUR BEST WORK – ANYWHERE, ANYTIMESort and analyze your data with Excel and draw insights. Create, view, make edits on-the-go and easily access your spreadsheets in the cloud with the touch of your fingers.• Sort, analyze and visualize your data with support for formulas, charts, tables, sorting, filtering and more.• Draw insights on-the-go in Excel. Add formulas, reorder columns and resize tables in Excel with just the touch of your fingers• New spreadsheets are automatically saved in a location of your choice as soon as you start typing• Your spreadsheets are a click away. Access your files whenever you need to, with OneDrive, One Drive for Business, SharePoint, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Box support.

WORK TOGETHERShare your data, analysis, and insights with others.• Easily share your spreadsheets with the cloud-connected Excel app simply by sending a link, attachment, or custom invitation• You can view and restore a previous version of your spreadsheet, so you never have to worry about losing your work

Requirements:• OS version: KitKat (4.4.X) or above• 1 GB RAM or aboveSign in with a free Microsoft account to create or edit spreadsheets on devices with a screen size of 10.1 inches or smaller. A qualifying Office 365 subscription is required to unlock the full Office experience. Office 365 is also required to create or edit on tablets with a screen larger than 10.1 inches. See office.com/information for a list of qualifying plans.If you don’t have a subscription, you can buy Office 365 Home or Office 365 Personal within the app in most countries and regions.

Microsoft Office Mobile

Microsoft Office Mobile is the Office companion for phones running Android OS prior to v4.4. You can access, view and edit your Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents from virtually anywhere. Documents look like the originals, thanks to support for charts, animations, SmartArt graphics and shapes. When you make quick edits or add comments to a document, the formatting and content remain intact.*

KEY FEATURES:Access documents from virtually anywhere:• Cloud – With your phone, you can access Office documents that are stored on OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, or SharePoint.• Recent Documents – Office Mobile is cloud-connected. The documents you’ve recently viewed on your computer are readily available on your phone in the recent documents panel.• Email Attachments – You can view and edit Office documents attached to email messages.*

Office documents look great:• Great-Looking Documents - Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents look great on your phone, thanks to support for charts, animations, SmartArt Graphics, and shapes.• Optimized for Phone - Word, Excel and PowerPoint have been optimized for the small screen of your phone.• Resume Reading - When opening a Word document from OneDrive or OneDrive for Business on your phone, it automatically resumes at the place where you left off reading, even if you last viewed the document on your PC or tablet.• Presentation Views - The Slide Navigator view in PowerPoint lets you browse slides faster, while speaker notes help you practice your presentation.

Make quick edits and share*:• Documents Remain Intact - Formatting and content remain intact when you edit Word, Excel, or PowerPoint documents on your phone.• Create – You can create new Word and Excel documents on your phone.• Comments - You can review comments that have been made in Word and Excel documents on your phone and add your own comments.

* Sign in with a free Microsoft account to create, edit and save documents for home use. A qualifying Office 365 subscription is required to create, edit and save documents for business use. See office.com/information for a list of qualifying plans.

Requires a phone running Android OS 4.0 or later (Android M is not yet supported).For more information, please visit http://www.office.com/mobile.

Microsoft Outlook

Meet Outlook for Android, the app that helps millions of users connect all their email accounts, calendars and files in one convenient spot. Newly redesigned, Outlook for Android lets you do more from one powerful inbox.

See what matters most first with the Focused inbox that keeps the important messages on top. Switch between your emails and calendar to schedule your next meeting or share your availability with just a few taps. Or grab a document from your Files list and attach it to an email seamlessly.

With everything you need only a tap away, managing your busy days is now easier than ever.

Microsoft PowerPoint

Named one of the “Best Apps of 2015” by Google Play in France, Spain, Italy, and IndonesiaThe real Microsoft PowerPoint app for Android phones and tablets.Microsoft PowerPoint for Android is made for work on-the-go. PowerPoint has the familiar look, feel and quality of Office with an intuitive touch experience designed for Android phones and tablets. Whether you want to create a beautiful presentation from scratch or just need to read and make quick edits on-the-go, PowerPoint gives you the best productivity experience you want. Work with confidence knowing that we save your changes automatically and you won’t lose any formatting or charts as you move across devices. You’ll have easy access to your presentations in the cloud whenever you need them.The free PowerPoint app provides a core experience for viewing, creating and editing documents on devices with a screen size of 10.1 inches or smaller. You can unlock the full PowerPoint experience with an Office 365 subscription.By installing the app, you agree to these terms and conditions: http://aka.ms/eula

REAL MICROSOFT POWERPOINTTell your story with confidence. Microsoft PowerPoint combines the familiar look, feel and quality of Office with a touch-first experience designed for Android.• Office offers unequaled file compatibility and layout fidelity. Presentations will look exactly how you intended on your Android phone and tablet. No missing charts or images• The familiar navigation and menu options in the ribbon help you get started quickly• The familiar features you know in PowerPoint - Images, charts, animations, transitions are all in the touch-first apps to give you the best productivity experience on your phone and tablet• Jumpstart your creativity by using one of the beautiful templates to get started on your presentation

DO YOUR BEST WORK – ANYWHERE, ANYTIMETell your story on-the-go with the touch-first PowerPoint app. Create, view and make edits on-the-go with easy access your presentations in the cloud.• Tell your story exactly the way you want whether in portrait or landscape - with rich formatting, charts, animations, transitions and speaker notes• Creating a powerful presentation is easy – Auto-zoom makes it easy to insert, move, edit charts and textboxes with the touch of your fingers, no keyboard or mouse required.• New presentations are automatically saved in a location of your choice as soon as you start typing.• PowerPoint gives you the flexibility to change your presentation theme anytime• Access your recent files from any device so you can quickly pick up from where you left off• Your presentations are a click away. Access your files whenever you need to, with OneDrive, One Drive for Business, SharePoint, Google Drive, Box, Dropbox support.

WORK TOGETHERCollaborate on presentations and share your stories and ideas with others• Easily share your presentation with the cloud-connected PowerPoint app simply by sending a link or attachment• Work with others at the same time. You can view and restore a previous version of your presentation, so you never have to worry about losing your work• Add a unique, custom message to your PowerPoint presentation when you share in email

Requirements:• OS version: KitKat (4.4.X) or above• 1 GB RAM or aboveSign in with a free Microsoft account to create or edit docs on devices with a screen size of 10.1 inches or smaller. A qualifying Office 365 subscription is required to unlock the full Office experience. Office 365 is also required to create or edit on tablets with a screen larger than 10.1 inches. See office.com/information for a list of qualifying plans.If you don’t have a subscription, you can buy Office 365 Home or Office 365 Personal within the app. With an Office 365 subscription, you get the full Word, Excel and PowerPoint experience on Android tablet, phone, iPad and iPhone, and you can install full Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote on PCs or Macs..

Office Lens

Named one of the “Best Apps of 2015” in the U.S. by Google Play!Office Lens trims, enhances, and makes pictures of whiteboards and docs readable. You can use Office Lens to convert images to PDF, Word and PowerPoint files, and you can even save images to OneNote or OneDrive.

Office Lens is like having a scanner in your pocket. Like magic, it will digitize notes on whiteboards or blackboards. Always find important documents or business cards. Sketch your ideas and snap a picture for later. Don't lose receipts or stray sticky notes again! By installing the app, you agree to these terms and conditions: http://aka.ms/olensandterms.

Scenarios:- Capture and crop a picture of a whiteboard or blackboard and share your meeting notes with co-workers.- Make digital copies of your printed documents, business cards, or posters and trim them precisely.- Printed text will be automatically recognized (using OCR) so you can search for words in images and copy and edit them.

Key Features:- With Whiteboard mode, Office Lens trims and cleans up glare and shadows.- With Document mode, Office Lens trims and colors images perfectly.- The scanned picture can be saved to your choice of OneNote, OneDrive, or locally on the device.- Business Card mode can extract contact information and save it into your address book and OneNote. This feature works best with English, German and Spanish business cards. Support for more languages is coming soon.- Choose to convert images to Word (.docx), PowerPoint (.pptx), or PDF (.pdf) files that are automatically saved to OneDrive.

Microsoft Translator

Microsoft Translator, which allows you to have conversations across languages. Use your phone alone, or pair with your smart watch to engage in conversation without the challenges of a language barrier. Translator allows each participant to speak in their own language and be easily understood by everyone in the conversation.

With your smart watch, Translator gets even more powerful, allowing for a more natural conversation experience by giving each participant a device to use. You can stay engaged and in the moment without having to huddle around a shared screen.

Key Features:• Have natural conversations in Arabic, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. More languages are coming soon!• Use your smart watch and phone together to enable conversations without huddling around a single phone• Translator conversation history is tagged with your location and reviewable in any participating language

Microsoft Translator helps you break the language barrier wherever you’re traveling or have a need to translate anything in your daily life. Quickly translate phrases on your Android Wear device, or use the companion Android app when it’s more convenient.

• On your watch: Speak to your watch and get an instant translations in 50 languages• Not sure how to pronounce the translation? Let Translator speak the phrase for you.• Noisy environment? Just show someone your watch or phone. In addition, on the phone, large full-screen translation cards make it easy to show others what you're trying to communicate• Bookmark your translations for later use the translations you want to save and look-up recent translations• All your translations are synchronized between your watch and your phone, settings too• On the phone companion app, in addition to speech translations from your watch’s language, you can select other speech languages or you can type on your keyboard (really useful for noisy places!). You can also and copy & paste translation from and to other apps

The Microsoft Translator app is powered by cutting edge technology that's also used by Office, Bing, Skype, Internet Explorer as well as partners such as Twitter, Yelp, eBay, WeChat and many more.